The present application relates to eliminating the need for large well regulated electrical single or three phase power and large caliber electrical supply lines required to reliably operate medium to high power X-Ray generators.
Currently there are three ways to provide the electrical power required to operate X-Ray generators:
1) Directly from heavy power lines: High frequency, medium to high power X-Ray generators transform, rectify and filter the line voltage to provide adequate DC bus voltage for inverters to power the primary of a high voltage transformer and X-Ray tube. The X-Ray generators are permanently connected to the power line and draw all energy from the power line.
2) Electrochemical Batteries: Multiple rechargeable batteries are placed in series/parallel to provide appropriate DC bus voltage and energy levels required to properly operate low to medium power X-Ray generators. The X-Ray generators are disconnected from their electrical supply source and draw all energy from the batteries during X-Ray exposures.
3) Capacitor Discharge: Store low energy and low power are stored in multiple capacitors of low capacitance. The X-Ray generators are disconnected from their electrical supply source during the X-Ray exposures and are limited to short duty cycles and X-Ray technique.
In the above three configurations the generator power output and duty cycle is limited by the capability and regulation of the power line, the battery pack or the capacitors.
Industry typically defines the power output of an X-Ray generator as to be able to deliver to an X-Ray tube during a 100 milliseconds exposure at its maximum tubecurrent at 100 kilovolts.
An X-Ray generator capable of supplying 100 kilovolts at 500 mA during 100 milliseconds would be rated at 50 kilowatt (100×500×0.01=50 kW).
For a 50 kilowatt generator to deliver its fill power and not taking into account transformation losses, a 220 volts AC power line must at least be capable to deliver 227 ampere with no more than 10% in voltage drop from no load to full load.
A battery pack for a 50 kilowatt generator with as 300 volts DC bus for the inverter must be capable of delivering at least a current of 166 amp with 10% or less in voltage drop.